At the very beginning of this year, I`ve got great
news in a mail. A travel fund has been
set up for all the participants of International Young Librarians Academy supported
by the Bill and Melinda Gates Fundation.We have got the opportunity to
attend international conferences on
development topics that are relevant to libraries, including but not limited to
information systems and technology, education, children and youth development,
management, community development, monitoring and evaluation, and e-governance.
Eligible
to apply were all the young librarians and Library and Information Science
(LIS) students from Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Poland, Latvia, and
Lithuania, who participated in the Academy in Latvia last August.
The main selection criteria were: the applicant must be
an IYLA participant, completion of the six-months after the Academy evaluation
form (to be disseminated in February 2013), proven record of using knowledge
and skills acquired at the Academy for the benefit of the participant’s library
and community as shown by the six-month evaluation, relevance of conference for
the plans that the participant will implement upon his/her return to home country,
co-share amount, include a reasonable budget for conference participation, commitment
to prepare a trip report to be published on the IFLA NPSIG blog (http://npsig.wordpress.com/), commitment
to share conference-related experiences via the dedicated IYLA Facebook group
with colleagues from other countries.
I have chosen to participate on the 19thAnnual CONFERENCE ON PROFESSIONAL INFORMATION RESOURCEShttp://www.inforum.cz/en/. I had to complete a
conference support application form, which I`ve sent to the organizers. In a
few weeks I received the confirmation that I can participate on the conference
that I had chosen.
The
conference is internationally-attended – since 2003 the original
territorial focus on the Czech Republic and Slovakia has been expanded to the
other Central and Eastern European countries and it has become the main event
in this field in the region. The conference is attended especially by
information professionals from special and public libraries, private
corporations and state agencies, IT managers, physicians, lawyers, university
teachers and students.
The themes were very various:
- The Future of Information Provision: Open, Mobile and in the Cloud,
- Information Behavior of Doctoral Students and Ecological
Information Interactions
- Implementing a Discovery Tool: Options, Experience, Expectations
- Mobile Media and “Google Generation”: Significance and Challenges
for Information Professionals
- The Central Portal of Czech Libraries – KNIHOVNY.CZ
- We Were the First Ones or The Implementation of the Discovery
System Primo at the University of Pardubice
- “Do You Have It?” - Summon as a Primary Search Engine at the
National Technical Library
- The National Library´s Experience with EBSCO Discovery Service
(EDS)
- Evaluating Research and Research Impact: Open Access Does Not Mean
Easy Access
Although I didn`t present anything, I learnt about the
new trends and the current practice in the Czech Republic and the CEE
countries. I will try to answer to the most relevant questions that my Romanian
IYLA colleagues might have in relation with the conference themes.By attending this conference, I have learned more about
e-books, I am able now to answer to a lots of questions I had in my mind such
as: “Are we ready for books that read
themselves? “or “Will the video
embedded page challenging our preservation and collection systems?
By interacting with other
participants, I am able to know the role of technology in the development of
their community and the benefits for
enriching the library services. I know now about digitization, and when the
time will come for our library too, I will be able to contribute and share my
new knowledge and skills, that I `ve gain.
I learnt new ways to attract users to library. Attending
the poster session, helped me learn more about library systems and services
from other countries and good practices in the field.
I had the wonderful opportunity to meet great guest speakers
like Karen Blakeman from RBA Information Services, United Kingdom, Thomas
Mutschler from Thuringian University and State Library, Germany and Aki Lassila
from The National Library of Finland.
I want to say special thanks to the
Bill and Melinda Gates Fundation, who gave me this opportunity
to be part of the International Young Librarians Academy and to attend to this
conference. I hope to have other future opportunities to attend to other
international conferences in order to gain new abilities and knowledges.
Here are some photos from the conference, more you can get on the conference website http://www.inforum.cz/en/
